Cure For Roller Trailers ?

[LIsound]

I have a 23 dv cc and a loadrite trailer with rollers.
I choose rollers just for that reason. in the northeast our tides in some areas are 12-13 feet. so at some ramps, I can just barley get the trailer in the water.
It allows me to roll the boat on, instead of sinking it for a bunk style.
The way mine is set up, i use the standard wind on winch that came with it.
Very rarely will i have to winch the whole boat on and even then, it's not that bad. Electric winches are also very easy to use, the pulley block just takes 2x as long to get the boat on...but no big deal.

I could launch this boat from a sandy beach if i wanted to.

 

[Bryan 2530]

We built a flatbed trailer for a 1903 Fantail Launch that we rebuilt.

The trailer was fitted with an extendable tongue that extended about 16 feet to get the trailer to sink below the stands. Worked very well.

 

[MaxOut]

Could you be rid of above ^ if you used an overlength aluminum bunk trailer maybe 3' too long? Would give you enough length to get boat in/out of water?

I know this won't work........too easy solution. Why not :?:

It will work if the ramp is long enough and I would recommend it for anyone buying a new bunk trailer. The problem I've run into is the steep (and sometimes uneven) drop off waiting for you at the end of the ramp. My last boat was a 30' Catamaran on an aluminum bunk trailer with an extended tongue. Most boat ramps around here are concrete and get washed away from tides at the end creating a drop. This is very dangerous for your trailer and sometimes your boat. I have seen people drop off the end of ramps and could not pull the boat back up and the trailer was literally lying on the concrete. Not to mention the rebar sticking out from the last boat that drove off the edge and cracked the concrete :shock: . Some of the nicer launches have marks on the pier showing you were the end of the ramp is but most do not. I know rollers can be a pain $$ wise and have allot more that can go wrong but I would never own another bunk trailer for my usage. If I only traveled to 1 or 2 launches and they will accommodate a bunk than by all means I would rather have one. My usage finds me at new and unfamiliar boat ramps at far away places and I feel my odds of getting in and out are much better with a roller. In fact I have not been to a ramp I could not use yet. Like LIsound said I could launch or retrieve on a beach if needed too.

 

[LIsound]

Could you be rid of above ^ if you used an overlength aluminum bunk trailer maybe 3' too long? Would give you enough length to get boat in/out of water?

I know this won't work........too easy solution. Why not :?:

It will work if the ramp is long enough and I would recommend it for anyone buying a new bunk trailer. The problem I've run into is the steep (and sometimes uneven) drop off waiting for you at the end of the ramp. My last boat was a 30' Catamaran on an aluminum bunk trailer with an extended tongue. Most boat ramps around here are concrete and get washed away from tides at the end creating a drop. This is very dangerous for your trailer and sometimes your boat. I have seen people drop off the end of ramps and could not pull the boat back up and the trailer was literally lying on the concrete. Not to mention the rebar sticking out from the last boat that drove off the edge and cracked the concrete :shock: . Some of the nicer launches have marks on the pier showing you were the end of the ramp is but most do not. I know rollers can be a pain $$ wise and have allot more that can go wrong but I would never own another bunk trailer for my usage. If I only traveled to 1 or 2 launches and they will accommodate a bunk than by all means I would rather have one. My usage finds me at new and unfamiliar boat ramps at far away places and I feel my odds of getting in and out are much better with a roller. In fact I have not been to a ramp I could not use yet. Like LIsound said I could launch or retrieve on a beach if needed too.

much better said. the ramp drop off is a killer. I just have to get the last set of rollers wet to bring the boat on the trailer. as for the cost, if you take care of the rollers, I don't really see any added expense. Except for the brakes which always seem to need some work every year.

 

[B-Faithful]

I have a bunk trailer with slick bunks with my current boat and a roller with my previous boat. It is easier to load/unload at a nice ramp with a bunk trailer but roller trailers definately give you access to more ramps. (ie. very short ramps, very shallow ramps, etc). While my bunk trailer is fine and nice, I probably would get a roller trailer if given the choice.

 

[Megabyte]

Don't sailboat trailers have extended tongues to get the hull into the water?
Come to think of it, I've never seen a roller trailer under a sailboat.

 

[MaxOut]

Don't sailboat trailers have extended tongues to get the hull into the water?
Come to think of it, I've never seen a roller trailer under a sailboat.

I have not seen to many fixed keel sailboats on trailers? The ones I have seen where loaded and off loaded with a travel lift or had hydraulic lifting pads. Like a marine yard trailer. Sail boats are a different cat all together.

 

[Megabyte]

Next time I'm at my local yard, I'll get some photos. We have a number of short, or 'T' keel sailboats that store in my local yard on trailers.
My neighbor owns a sailboat in the 25' range that sits on a travel trailer. The next time he has his boat at home, I'll get a photo of that one too.

The larger racing boats at my local yard with the bigger keels are stored on fabricated yard storage stands (not trailers), and are dropped into and taken out of the water by the travel lift before and after a race.

I always wondered how the boats on travel trailers got launched.
Seems like you'd need a high tide and a long tongue to make it work.

 

[Miss Mattie]

I have owned a number of small outboards and a number of saillboats on trailers.

No question in my mind that rollers are the way to go with trailable outboards for all the reasons given by MaxOut. In my area on a low tide with a shallow launching ramp I could not launch and retrieve my 2310 if I had bunks.

As for sailboats, I have several J24 racing sailboats with 5' fixed keels. They live on a trailer with fixed supports, and needed to be launched with a hoist. Because of the mast setup, most sailboats stay in a yard on trailers awaiting launching by a hoist. They can and do travel but the mast and rig setup usually takes too long to do it every time you use it . My J24s went from Virginia to California, Texas, Florida, Ohio and New England on many occasions, but in each case for a week or so of sailing.

I owned a couple of smaller sailboats with "drop keels" that could be launched off of a trailer, but they were a real pain, poor sailers, and not worth the effort.

 

[samsims]

I have owned two bunk trailers with an extended tongue, definitely the way to go with a bunk trailer.

My preferred trailer setup has bunks and keel rollers. Kind of the best of both bunk and roller.

 

[tnnelvision]

All of the aforementioned points are great and i'm not tryin' to kill the "roller" buzz, and I don't think it would ever be an issue w/ a Parker, but......I have seen cases of transom sag w/ and hull indentation with roller trailers. I'd make sure as many rollers as possible lined up under the hull stringers and/or bulkheads. I'd also adjust rear rollers as close as possible to transom. These same rules should apply when adjusting bunk trailers also.

 

[tnnelvision]

uh......one more note. Longer tounges on trailer work great until a ramp with a crest or any hump. The longer the wheelbase, the easier it is to grind undercarriage of trailer. I once winched onto bunk tailer, got in truck and could not budge it in either direction, could not power boat back off of trailer and had to have someone pull me off w/ another boat

 

[Totally Hooked]

I run a trailer that is oversized was ab;lee to move the winch tree up. I have my 2320 on it. I use this winch that came with the trailer only change was over to a web starp i hate cable they dont last. If i have to wich the boat on the trailer 3 feet its a lot. Its a 48 roller aluminum i beam venture.